With American taxpayers on the hook to spend nearly $100 billion in “economic recovery” dollars on federal education programs—on top of the roughly $60 billion already spent each year—congressional Republicans are calling on the Obama Administration to cooperate with vigorous congressional oversight to protect both students and taxpayers. The Education and Labor Committee’s top Republican, Rep. Ho... Read more »
Last month, we lost nearly 600,000 jobs. The number of unemployed workers grows with each day, and the need to help them find new jobs has never been greater. It has been more than a decade since federal job training initiatives have been updated. With a changing economy and growing unemployment rate, the time to renew this legislation is now. We must be committed to a dynamic, results-oriented jo... Read more »
It’s great to be here with such a dynamic panel of witnesses who make volunteerism “cool.” I am a longtime supporter of volunteerism. Whether it’s something we do as individuals and families in our own communities, or something we do as citizens coordinated at the national level, volunteerism is a hallmark of what makes America great. Volunteering our time and our talents is a way that all America... Read more »
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, issued the following statement this evening on President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress: “President Obama deserves great credit for his ambitious plan to get our economy back on track, our fiscal house back in order, and our educational system back atop the rest of the world. Th... Read more »
The U.S. House of Representatives today gave final approval to the controversial spending package crafted by congressional Democrats under the guise of economic stimulus despite the fact that not a single Republican voted for the bill. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, issued the following statement: “The single most important ... Read more »
The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee today convened its first hearing of the 111th Congress to examine workers’ rights and violence against labor union leaders in Colombia. Noting that nearly 600,000 American workers lost their jobs in the month of January, the panel’s top Republican, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), expressed deep concern for the plight of Colombian workers but questi... Read more »
To help workers who are struggling to balance the demands of work and family, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) today introduced the Family-Friendly Workplace Act (H.R. 933), a bill that will eliminate barriers in federal law that prevent private sector workers from choosing more flexible work arrangements. McMorris Rodgers is a long-time advocate for working women and men and has proposed simila... Read more »
The Department of Labor reported this morning that the U.S. economy shed 598,000 jobs in the month of January, the largest single-month total since 1974, bringing the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. In response to these staggering figures, the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee’s top Republican, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), issued the following statement: “There is no doubt about t... Read more »
For the third time in less than two years, congressional Democrats today advanced the most fundamental shift in civil rights law in decades while preventing Republicans from offering a single amendment. With final passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the bill now goes to the President without a single Republican amendment ever having received the consideration of the full U.S. Hous... Read more »
The bill before us was the first substantive piece of legislation considered by the 111th Congress. In a matter of days, it could be one of the first substantive measures signed into law by the 44th President of the United States. And despite all the promises of openness and bipartisanship, at the end of the day it will have been considered not once, not twice, but three separate times in the Hous... Read more »
